Lemon #7

Lemon #7

4"x5" gouache on paper

Now I'm back in my comfort zone with lemon #4 re-described in gouache. I've done quite a few small paintings in gouache, it reminds me most of painting in oil in terms of consistency and color mixing, but of course, dries much much faster. I used some dry brush here, which I'd like to learn to do in oil.

Thanks very much to Sally Dean and JanettMarie for recommendations on great lemon paintings:
- Sally recommends Robin Rosenthal's "Egg and Lemons", it's great. And check out Robin's other work. I also like the next painting on her blog, "Bananas and Teal Jar".
- Janett Marie recommends Julie Ford Oliver's "More Lemons", and if you look at Julie's posts in May of 2012, there are a lot more, just scroll down a bit. And don't miss the sunflowers in the polka dot pot, I love that one too!
- Do take a look at my dear friend Joelle Feldman's "For Limoncello", it is one of my favorites.
- And finally, Julian Merrow-Smith has done many lemon paintings, "Lemon and Cup" is my all time favorite of his, though I have to confess, the pottery mug (David Garland, I think) in this painting grabs me too.

Lemon #6

Lemon #6

4"x5" watercolor on paper

I think it's a great learning experience to explore a subject in different mediums, so here is lemon #4 reappearing as a watercolor. I'd like to get more experience with watercolor, because it's so convenient to take along when traveling, or just going about your daily routine. I could've chosen a better paper here, just one of the things I learned. The background is actually a bit more green than in this scan...

Any more favorite lemon paintings before I include them in a post? Thanks to those who've spoken up so far, I'm enjoying the exploration.

Lemon #5 with Sunflowers

Lemon with Sunflowers

6"x6" oil on gessoed paper

Sunflowers in January, thank you Trader Joe's! My husband says this one is about the sunflowers, so I guess lemon #5 is jealous. I think Janett predicted this... And then there's the blue jug, I just love it. And blue and yellow are such a good combination, I couldn't resist.

If you will email me a link to your favorite lemon painting, I'll include the links in the next lemon post. Please use a link that will be permanent, like a blog post, rather than a page on a website (those are subject to change) and include the artists name. My email address is in my profile.

Life Drawing 2

 

 

It's not all lemons here on my blog this month! On Wednesday night I went to the weekly life drawing session at the Concord Art Association. We had a great model, and I was able to add some watercolor to my drawings on the longer poses (15 and 20 minutes). It's such a good thing to do, I hope I can become a regular.

Lemon #4

"Lemon #4"

oil on gessoed paper

~ 5"x7"

There was lots of paint on lemon #3, and here I'm back in my comfort zone with not so much paint. I like the subtlety of this one. Just a lemon sitting on a cutting board with green tissue paper behind it. And I really studied the lemon.

Lemon #3 with Dish

"Lemon #3 with Dish"

5"x7" oil on gessoed paper

I love this little dish. I don't remember where it came from, but we keep garlic in it. And as you can probably guess, I spent more time on the dish than on the lemon!

Lemon #2 with blue jug

Lemon #2 with Blue Jug

5"x5" oil on gessoed paper

For the second lemon I wanted to add something, and I love this blue jug. And I like that it's the color of the background on Lemon #1. This time I used Fabriano watercolor paper with one coat of gesso, and roughly the same palette. I like it.

And thanks to those who made suggestions for what's next.

Lemon #1

"Lemon #1"

5"x7" oil on canvas panel

I started this blog in 2009 with a goal of improving my painting, by painting regularly and often, just like practicing a musical instrument. And it worked (compare the paintings from early 2009 with those in the summer of 2010). But after a while, I felt like I was doing the same thing over and over. And then life intervened, and I slowed way down. And I could feel how rusty I was getting.

So it's time to get back to practicing! And to give that some structure, here's the plan: each month I'm giving myself an assignment; a subject to learn to paint better, a process experiment, something to focus on. This month, I'm painting lemons. Here's the first one, really simple, a single lemon sitting on a cardboard box.

Any ideas for the next one?

"From Douarnenez Harbor"

"From Douarnenez Harbor"

6"x8" oil on Raymar panel
SOLD

I was putting together some paintings today to take to Yarmouth Frame and Gallery, and found one that I hadn't posted from my trip to Brittany this summer with the Wapping Group, one of the highlights of my painting year. This was painted from the coastal village of Douarnenez in one of the rare moments of sunshine we had on that trip. And now for sale at the gallery. It was such a fun trip and I met some wonderful UK painters. What a nice thought on which to end the year.

Happy Holidays!

Winter Stream

6"x6" oil on Raymar panel

I apologize for showing a painting that has already been on the blog, but when I think about the holidays this one keeps coming back to me. And I keep searching for similar views when the snow flies, like it has done the last few days here in New England.

I hope you are all having a wonderful holiday week, and wish you a joyous new year!

Before closing, I'd like to point you to Katherine Tyrrell's Making a Mark blog. Katherine has gathered 16 paintings divided into 4 categories: still life, nature, portrait, and landscape, from paintings nominated by her readers. We are all invited to vote for one in each category. I've made my votes, and in some categories this was a very difficult choice. I hope you will take a look and do some voting yourself.